The invention relates generally to machines for transporting battery plate grids from a magazine to a delivery station at which the battery plate grids are delivered to another machine for performing a subsequent operation.
The invention also relates to such transfer machines for transferring battery plate grids which are vertically oriented in the magazine and which are delivered to the next machine in a horizontal orientation.
In one prior construction, such transfer machines included a pair of horizontally spaced support rails which were adapted to engage and support the oppositely extending lugs of the battery plate grids and which included a vertical step in horizontally spaced relation to the magazine. The battery plate grids were transported from the magazine by and along an upper portion of the rails upstream of the vertical step and for a distance downstream of the vertical step by a suction mechanism including one or more suction cups. The suction mechanism traveled in a straight line extending from ahead of to beyond the vertical step. When beyond the vertical step, the grids were solely supported by the suction mechanism at a location above the lower portions of the rails.
In addition, such transfer machines also included stops located in the path of battery plate grid travel downstream from the vertical step and operative, in response to horizontal downstream movement of the suction mechanism, to strip the battery plate grids from the suction cups. Such stripped grids fell by gravity to the underlying segment of the lower portion of the rails, and were thereafter supported by the lower portion of the rails for transport further downstream and under the path of suction cup travel by a conveyor which engaged the lugs supported on the rails. During such downstream movement, the grids were re-oriented from the vertical orientation to a horizontal orientation by reason of engagement with a curved member located in the path of grid travel.
Attention is directed to the following U.S. Pat. Nos:
______________________________________ 2,626,038 W. W. Smith January 20, 1953 2,704,593 C. D. Galloway March 22, 1955 3,510,931 J. D. Harris May 12, 1970 3,741,365 McAlpine, et al. June 26, 1973 3,982,624 W. J. Eberle September 28, 1976 4,168,772 W. J. Eberle September 25, 1979 4,196,511 I. A. Kolosov April 8, 1980 4,349,959 T. A. Urban September 21, 1982 ______________________________________